


from the bed we made

by peaceoutofthepieces



Series: Skam Bingo 2020 [12]
Category: SKAM (Netherlands), WTFock | Skam (Belgium)
Genre: Break Up, First Meetings, Flirting, Hook-Up, M/M, One Night Stands, but not how you expect, except it isn’t
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25898620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peaceoutofthepieces/pseuds/peaceoutofthepieces
Summary: “What can I get you?”The guy blinks at him again. “Uhm.” It’s hard to hear over the music, but his voice is smooth and low and pretty and Jens decides he likes it instantly. Just as easily as he’d decided on his beauty, even in the less-than-ideal lightning. He glances at the array of options behind the bar, then back to Jens with a small shrug. “Something strong.”Jens raises a brow. Not exactly what he’d expected, but okay. “Nothing in particular then?” He gets another shrug. “Okay. I’d give you at least another hour before you should start into the shots, so how about my most famous cocktail?”The guy squints at him. “What’s famous about it?”Jens smirks. “Try it and find out,” he suggests.
Relationships: Jens Stoffels/Lucas van der Heijden
Series: Skam Bingo 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729147
Kudos: 75





	from the bed we made

Jens has been working in this bar long enough to feel comfortable. He’s become familiar with his manager and his coworkers and the regulars, and he knows his way around. A few months of experience has been long enough to teach him how to mix a cocktail with flair and pour a few shots at once. It helps that his friends are his most consistent customers. Sure, they spend most visits teasing and making fun of him, as well as attempting to wiggle free drinks out of him, but it’s nice all the same. It’s not the worst job in the world. Even with the occasional too-drunk customer, which Jens has had his fair share of experience with. He’s served glasses of water to many blubbering girls (who occasionally showed their gratitude in rather interesting ways), broken up the occasional bar brawl (between guys often twice his size), and become one of the regulars’ most beloved bartenders along the way. 

He’s in a fairly good position. Comfortable and secure and, by now, fairly confident. He’s had more than enough customers hit on him to fully understand the role of a bartender. 

There have been plenty of people he’s flirted back with. The bar is modern and local enough to attract a fairly young crowd, and Jens has gotten distracted by many of the attractive people that wander through the doors. Even some of the blubbering girls. 

There haven’t been quite as many blubbering guys, but he’s keeping his eyes open. 

At the moment, he’s not able to watch for anything, taking stock as he is out in the back. They do also serve food, though not a big variety. Jens is, thankfully, not there for table service, and he’s far from a chef. It doesn’t stop him from getting handed a few less pleasant maintenance jobs here and there, though. 

He’s a little relieved when Levi walks through the door. “Jens,” he calls in to him. “Come give me an extra hand out here, you can leave that ‘til later. With any luck we’ll get someone else to do it. I don’t know why they keep trying to steal my bar staff on a Friday night.”

Jens chuckles and doesn’t bother pointing out that Levi was the one who’d shooed him back here a while ago. He’s just happy for the excuse to get back out front. 

Especially when, ten minutes later, the most beautiful boy he’s ever seen waltzes through the door and throws himself into a stool right in front of Jens. He’s long-limbed and sharp-boned, with a pretty mop of curls and an extremely distracting set of blue eyes. Jens has to swallow thickly when they meet his own in an attempt to get himself together. He blinks at Jens, then offers him a small smile, leaning his arms atop the counter and waiting. 

Jens snaps himself out of it enough to finish the drink he’d already been preparing, passing it off to an older woman before finally turning to the guy. Jens smiles in return and leans across the counter towards him, hooking one foot behind the other and bracing himself on his elbows. “What can I get you?”

The guy blinks at him again. “Uhm.” It’s hard to hear over the music, but his voice is smooth and low and pretty and Jens decides he likes it instantly. Just as easily as he’d decided on his beauty, even in the less-than-ideal lightning. He glances at the array of options behind the bar, then back to Jens with a small shrug. “Something strong.”

Jens raises a brow. Not exactly what he’d expected, but okay. “Nothing in particular then?” He gets another shrug. “Okay. I’d give you at least another hour before you should start into the shots, so how about my most famous cocktail?”

The guy squints at him. “What’s famous about it?”

Jens smirks. “Try it and find out,” he suggests. 

He understands that the offer may seem a little dodgy, but he works in the place. The guy should at least know that he’s trustworthy. Jens thinks he has a trustworthy face. 

Still, his customer doesn’t look too keen. 

In fact, he looks exhausted. Drawn. There are bags under those pretty blue eyes and his messily styled hair perhaps isn’t as styled as Jens had originally thought. In fairness, Jens should probably have noticed these things sooner. Most people who come in here alone, asking for something strong, are probably in some sort of distress. 

Jens wouldn’t mind offering him a few choice forms of relief. 

“Will you be willing to try if I promise it isn’t poison?” Jens tries, verging on teasing, trying to drag that smile back out. 

It works, just slightly. The guy smiles and half rolls his eyes, and Jens feels a tiny rush of pride. “Maybe if you promise.”

“You can trust me, sweetheart.” It’s always risky, this line, but it’s Jens’s favourite to try out. It works a charm, this time. A lovely flush spreads over the blue-eyed boy’s cheeks, and he licks his lips before giving Jens a tiny nod. Jens shoots him a wink and drums his hands on the bar-top before turning to collect the necessary bottles. 

He can feel eyes on him the whole time he mixes, and he decides to throw in a little of his flair, spinning and flipping the bottles in his hands before swiftly pouring a tiny stream of each into a wine glass. The guy’s smile widens as he watches him, and has morphed into a full grin by the time Jens sets the glass down in front of him. He looks down at the indigo-colored mixture and then back up at Jens with a raised brow, distrusting. 

Jens rolls his eyes and slides the glass towards him. “Thought we’d developed some trust here, huh? Come on. I’ll give you this first one on the house.”

The guy’s brows raise further, then drop into a confused furrow. “Why would you do that?”

Jens shrugs. “Beautiful guy like you comes into my bar looking sad, it’s my duty to give him a free drink.”

This earns him a huff and another pretty blush. “Simple as that.”

“Well, if you’re that insistent, you can pay me with your name.” Jens leans across the bar once more, bringing himself even closer than last time while being mindful of the glass between them. 

The guy eyes him for a second, debating, or unsure if Jens is even serious, before seeming to give in. “Lucas,” he says simply. He nods in the direction of Jens’s chest. “Thanks, Jens.”

Jens grins and raps his hands on the counter again, pushing himself back. “Nice to meet you, Lucas.”

He almost expects Lucas to disappear into the crowd, or for someone to at least approach him and steal him away. But he stays in place, slowly downing his cocktail, keeping to himself and occasionally letting his gaze wander back to Jens, who has made his way down to the opposite side of the bar. It’s a Friday night, after all, and he’s as busy as expected. He has to make quick work of skipping in past Levi, when his coworker notices Lucas’s empty glass and begins moving towards him. Jens clasps Levi’s shoulders and draws him to a halt, giving him a wide-eyed look as explanation. Levi holds his hands up and steps aside, smiling, and Jens slips past behind him. He makes his way to Lucas, and his stomach flutters when the boy instantly looks up at him with a smile. God, he might as well still be a high school boy with a crush, rather than in his last year of college and the supposedly ‘confident’ hot bartender. 

It’s not like he hasn’t had pretty customers before and tested out his flirting skills. It’s just that Lucas is really, really pretty. 

“And?” Jens nods at his empty glass. “What’s the verdict?”

“Unless it’s a slow-working poison, I’m pretty pleased with it. Guess I get why it’s famous.”

Jens smiles, pleased, and raises his brows. “You want a refill?”

Lucas raises a brow back. “Free of charge?”

“Not afraid to try your luck, huh?” Jens laughs. 

Lucas shrugs, resting his chin in his hands. It’s an unfairly cute gesture. He looks up at Jens through his lashes and Jens has no idea what he’s gotten himself into. “It has to work sometimes. So tell me, am I going to get lucky?”

Jens’s lips part. Lucas smiles slightly as he takes a moment to collect himself. Jens bites his bottom lip and watches Lucas’s gaze fall to his mouth. “I’m a student on minimum wage, so I can’t do another free cocktail. But if you can make a cheap beer or two last you until the shots come out, I’ll owe you two.”

Lucas hums. “You drive a hard bargain.”

“Beer then?”

“Or...something stronger? But preferably still cheap.”

Jens hesitates. He leans forward again as he squints at him. “How about a beer and you tell me what you’re doing here alone on a Friday night, hm?”

“Free drinks and free therapy,” Lucas mutters. “Maybe I should’ve tried out this bar before.”

Jens wiggles his brows at him and collects him a beer. 

Another handful of people appear in that time, all awaiting service, and Jens gives Lucas an apologetic smile before tending to them. He can deal with this quickly, and then get back to him. Halfway through, however, Levi appears at his side and looks at him knowingly, taking the bottles from Jens’s hands. Jens lists the remaining half of the order off to him and gives his shoulder a grateful squeeze before heading back to Lucas. This time, he rounds the bar, and Lucas doesn’t notice him until he pulls out the empty stool next to him. 

He sits sideways, facing Lucas, and places one arm on the bar-top, grimacing at the mild stickiness against his bare skin. The black tees are still better than the shirts they’d be wearing otherwise, however. 

“So,” he says, once Lucas has turned his head to stare at him and Jens has his undivided attention. Lucas’s beer is already half empty. “What’s up?”

Lucas sighs and takes another sip of his beer. “I was on a six month anniversary date with my boyfriend last week.”

Jens is sure his reaction is comical. His face falls and his shoulders slump and he’s sure his disappointment is abundantly clear. But he shouldn’t be surprised. Lucas is beautiful. Of course he wouldn’t be single. Jens is stupid for thinking he had a chance. 

“He dumped me.”

_Oh._

Jens supposes that probably makes more sense. 

“So...you sulked for a week, and that didn’t work, so now you’re attempting to drown your sorrows?” Jens guesses. 

Lucas shrugs, and this time his smile makes Jens want to hug him. No one that pretty should ever have to look that sad. “Pathetic, I know.”

Jens immediately shakes his head. “The only pathetic person in this scenario is your asshole ex. He broke up with you on your anniversary date, for fuck’s sake.” 

He wants to apologise as Lucas’s expression simply grows sadder and his shoulders scrunch up towards his ears. “It was my fault,” Lucas says. “I cared too much in the first place.”

“He’s an idiot for letting you go in the first place,” Jens argues, softening when Lucas looks over at him. “Just fucking look at you.”

Lucas blushes again, but then he’s looking away and shaking his head. He turns quiet. “You wouldn’t like me if you knew me.”

“Bullshit.”

There’s a small pause, in which Jens determinately looks at Lucas and Lucas resolutely looks at his drink. Lucas takes a heavy breath and still refuses to look at him, but speaks up again. “My friends came up last weekend. As you can probably tell, I’m from the Netherlands, and so obviously so are they, and they had to go home a couple days ago. And I managed to mostly distract myself with work and an assignment but then I was sitting in my room realising it was a Friday night and feeing worse than before.”

Jens just nods slightly as Lucas gives a small shrug and finally turns to look at him again. “So I thought I’d go out and maybe find someone to take my mind off of things.” 

Jens’s brows shoot up. 

Lucas shakes his head, closing his eyes for a second. “I don’t mean—I just wanted some noise other than the mess in my head. Something that actually worked to distract me. And if anything, at least I could ‘drown my sorrows’.” 

He air quotes and Jens is suddenly very, very distracted by his hands. They’re slim and long-fingered, the nails kept neat despite a few pencil smudges. Jens wonders what Lucas would do if he caught them in his own and brought them to his mouth. 

Lucas says, “Jens,” and Jens snaps his gaze back up to him, clearing his throat. 

“If it’s a distraction you’re looking for,” Jens tells him, “I know something better than alcohol.”

He really isn’t allowed to do this, but his manager loves him, and had definitely _seen_ him slip into the back and drag Lucas after him by the hand. The shelves he’d detested earlier no longer seem as bad, as they provide a support to cage Lucas up against as his lips finally find Jens’s own. 

He tastes like beer and vodka and plum and everything else that makes up Jens’s famous cocktail. But his lips are soft and his tongue swift, and for all Jens’s earlier admiring of his hands, he hadn’t quite been able to imagine the feeling of them sliding into his hair. It’s bliss, the gentle tugs matching up with the slow and careful way Lucas licks into his mouth, testing the waters. Jens uses his grip on his waist to crowd him closer against the shelves and press the length of their bodies together, relishing in the small, pleased sound Lucas makes in response. 

Even with the alcohol taste, he’s a pretty damn good kisser. 

With a six-month boyfriend, Jens supposes he’s had a lot of time to practice. But the point of the moment is to get Lucas’s mind off his ex, so Jens isn’t going to waste time thinking about him, either. 

Even when Lucas draws back, breaths nothing more than hot pants against Jens’s lips, Jens can’t tear himself away. He trails kisses along Lucas’s jaw, raises a hand to cup the back of his neck as his head tips back, exposing the smooth length of his throat to Jens’s mouth. Jens gladly explores the space, growing surer of himself as Lucas’s fingers tighten in his hair, as one of his broken breaths gives way to a muffled moan. 

“This is a really bad idea,” Lucas breathes. 

Jens wants to tell him that his reactions so far suggest otherwise. Instead he pauses, gentling his kisses to a few soft pecks, keeping his voice at a murmur. “Do you want to stop? I get it, if you changed your mind. We also don’t have to do anything. I’ll gladly keep kissing you, if it keeps your mind occupied.”

“I,” Lucas starts, stops. Takes a breath. “There’re shelves digging into my ass. I just mean this isn’t the best place to…”

He tugs at Jens’s hair again, and the movement feels somehow suggestive. It’s enough to leave Jens giggling into the crook of his neck, mindlessly nibbling at his jaw, as if he’s the one with the alcohol in his system. “I have half an hour left of my shift,” Jens admits. “Levi would let me off early, but on a Friday night…”

Lucas groans. “You couldn’t have told me that first?”

“Why? Can’t you make it that long?”

“Maybe. If you give me a minute. Not kissing me. Or touching me.”

Jens snorts, but obediently detaches his lips from Lucas’s skin and takes a step away. He raises his brows as Lucas covers his face with his hands, taking a few slow, measured breaths. “You’re adorable,” Jens tells him. 

“Please shut the fuck up.”

Levi doesn’t even seem to hold an ounce of sympathy when Jens makes his way back behind the bar, a few long minutes after Lucas had returned to his own seat. In fact, he makes a few lewd gestures and laughs as Jens flips him off and moves to serve yet another group of customers. It’s an excruciating half hour, especially with Lucas’s eyes on him, and Levi eventually seems to take pity. He taps Jens on the shoulder ten minutes before his shift is supposed to end and gives him a nod, and Jens is out the back and disposing of his apron without him having to say a word. 

When he makes his way back to Lucas, Lucas frowns, then grabs him by the back of the neck and pulls him down. His lips brush Jens’s ear as he speaks, and it makes it extremely hard for Jens to even begin to pay attention. “What happened to those shots you promised me?”

Jens tilts his head back and admires the smile Lucas offers him, before he’s turning back to the bar and flagging Levi down. He orders four shots, and Lucas squeezes his shoulder, and Jens’s whole body thrums in anticipation. 

They down their drinks quickly, two shots each slipping down like fire as they keep their gazes locked and then Jens is finally dragging Lucas outside and into the cool air. Lucas is snug enough in his button-up, but Jens quickly shrugs on his jacket, leaving it hanging open as Lucas flags down a taxi. 

Jens would like to be able to describe Lucas’s flat, but in all honesty, he doesn’t pay that much attention. They’re on each other as soon as they make it through the door, Lucas barely getting a chance to flip the lock before Jens is whirling him around and kissing the life out of him. It’s easier, with the smooth walls of the hallway, for Jens to back Lucas up against one and slot a leg between his. This time, Jens is cupping his face, holding him impossibly close as Lucas’s hands slip under his layers and skim up the bare skin of his back, pressing in and pulling Jens towards him. 

Jens rotates his shoulders, attempting to shrug his jacket off, and Lucas gives an amused huff against his lips and reaches up to push the material away. Jens lets it fall to the ground as Lucas’s fingers curl back into his hair. He drops his own hands to the back of Lucas’s thighs, providing a small instant of friction, before easily picking him up and guiding his legs around his waist. 

Lucas gasps and tightens his grip in Jens’s hair and then laughs, tipping his head back against the wall as Jens presses kisses to his cheek, and the spot behind his ear. “Fuck, why are you this hot?”

Jens laughs slightly, pulling away enough to push their foreheads together, letting their noses rub in a careful Eskimo kiss. Too careful, probably, for what this is. Too intimate. 

Jens can’t find it in himself to care. Lucas is soft and beautiful and lovely and Jens wants to be soft and gentle and loving with him. He likes him. It doesn’t matter what Lucas said. Jens already knows he likes him more than he’s liked anyone in a long time. 

He presses a soft kiss to Lucas’s lips, waits until they curve up into a smile, then moves onto his nose. It scrunches, and Jens presses a kiss to his forehead, his temples, his cheeks, his chin, his lips, his lips, his lips, until Lucas catches Jens’s bottom lip between his teeth. Jens sucks in a breath and takes the hint, pressing his mouth firmly to Lucas’s once more as their hips press together. 

Lucas makes another one of those small, precious noises against his lips and mutters, “Bedroom.”

Jens makes a tiny noise of protest. 

“Really,” Lucas insists, “as amazingly hot as this is, a bed would seriously work wonders. You can still manhandle me there, if you want.”

Well, Jens can’t really pass up an offer like that. 

~^~

Lucas can’t stop thinking about Jens. 

He supposes it makes sense. He’d spent a full week heartbroken, wallowing in his self pity and wanting the universe to swallow him whole. His relationship had meant a lot—too much—to him. It had been his reprieve, his safe haven, for six whole months. Longer, considering the time it took for them to get together. He’d put a lot of heart into it, and into that anniversary date. 

Only to have his heart ripped out and shredded right in front of him. Too damaged to ever be put back together. 

Until, apparently, he decides to get his liquid comfort from a very hot and very willing bartender. 

It had been stupid, probably. An overall terrible idea. But Lucas had basically fallen on sight. The hole in his heart had knitted up slowly, enough to let it beat erratically in his chest without bleeding out. It had been stupid, but Jens had made him feel something again. Something he hadn’t felt for longer than he’d realised. He can’t even blame the alcohol, because it had only taken Jens’s greeting smile for his mind to short-circuit and a whole swarm of butterflies to kick up in his stomach. He hadn’t been able to stop looking at him. The sharp line of his jaw, the exposed lines of his arms, the jut of his collarbones under the neck of his shirt, everything accentuated by the black of his clothes. Lucas hadn’t been able to stop looking and noticing Jens looking back. He’d wanted nothing more than to just _touch_. When Jens had kissed him, the desire had only increased tenfold. 

Lucas had been pretty sure the breakup had wrecked him. But Jens…Jens has ruined him. 

Which is completely ridiculous. Lucas shouldn’t be feeling this way about a one-night-stand. Especially not one that he had just a week after falling out of a serious relationship. It’s entirely possible that he has latched onto Jens for that exact reason, and that doesn’t seem entirely fair. 

That’s the only reason that in the three weeks since their hookup, Lucas hasn’t called him. 

He’d woken up the following morning to Jens hopping around his room, struggling back into his jeans. Lucas had only been able to watch on with squinty eyes, still half asleep, as Jens realised he was awake and turned to smile at him. Not smile, beam. Jens is absolutely beaming at him, cheeky as he rasps a good morning, and Lucas doesn’t even think before twisting his head around to meet him as he leans down for a kiss. Jens presses his hands into the mattress on either side of him, holding himself up. Too far away. Lucas moves a hand into his hair and pulls him down, kissing him deeper, sliding his other hand up the smooth expanse of his back, still free of a shirt. 

Jens had huffed something like a laugh, and attempted to pull away amidst lingering kisses. He’d given Lucas a short explanation of having to collect a sister, apologising profusely, and Lucas thought that that would be it, that Jens was taking the easy way out of their little get together and they would never see each other again. 

Then he’d asked Lucas for his phone and swiftly typed in his number, sweeping down for another drawn-out kiss. “You can text me. Or call me. Sometime. If you want.”

Lucas has thought about it every day since, staring at Jens’s contact in his phone and refusing to do anything with it. 

He’d given in and told Kes and Jayden a few days after, and they’d had the audacity to cheer for him and then give him an earful for ‘being an idiot’. By now, he’s sure they’re tired of listening to him. 

But he can’t just _call him_. What would he even say? It had been easy, when he’d seen him in the bar, spurred on by sheer attraction and a little liquid courage and an overwhelming desire to get out of his head. It had been a spur of the moment, unpreventable decision. It was never supposed to be anything more. Lucas is barely out of one relationship. He’s certainly not in the mindset to jump into another, or to even go on a date. 

He feels a little like he’d taken advantage of Jens, and the guilt eating away at his chest makes it impossible to reach out. 

Serving coffee is a minor distraction. He puts extra energy into making the perfect mixes and improving his latte art, for the customers who seem most likely to appreciate it. He gossips with the middle-aged ladies who come in amidst their morning runs and catches up with the fellow college students he’s become familiar with and he does his best to forget. 

He does everything he can think of to put Jens out of his mind, but the boy might as well have branded him. Lucas can’t get rid of the image of his eyes, dark and wide and intense, or his lips parted and shiny, bitten rid. He doesn’t have to try to remember the feel of Jens’s hands on him. It’s just _there_. An unexpected flutter in his stomach, a shiver up his spine, a twitch of his own fingers. Begging to touch something that’s no longer there. 

It would make sense if Lucas was still having these lingering feelings for his _ex_. But Jens? Jens is a pipe dream. A burning memory. A once-in-a-lifetime. 

Jens is standing right in front of him. 

Lucas looks up and sees him standing at the counter, looking normally tired for the time of the morning but still fresh and relaxed. Easy-going in a way Lucas has never managed to be, though he’s tried. 

Jens realises who he’s looking at and lights up, and Lucas drops the cloth in his hand. 

He ducks down behind the counter to pick it up and almost expects Jens to be gone when he looks back. But Jens in the flesh is more perfect than anything Lucas could ever conjure in his imagination, and he’s very, very real now. He’s in a red shirt, this time around, and he’s looking at Lucas with that same familiar smile and Lucas really regrets not calling him. 

“This is a nice coincidence,” Jens says. Then he seems to hesitate. “Unless you weren’t hoping to see me. Which, in that case….sorry. I didn’t know you worked here. But I’ve never actually been in here before, so how would I know? That’s kinda crazy, actually, that you’ve been here this whole time and I just never came in. Have you been working here this whole time?”

Lucas can’t prevent his smile. “Jens, you’re rambling.”

Jens snaps his mouth closed. He purses his lips, but his eyes are still sparkling. “Sorry. I swear I’m usually more chill.”

“I know,” Lucas’s smile widens. He can’t help it, with Jens actually in front of him. It’s the same thing that had overtaken him that first time in the bar. An indescribable pleasure at the other’s mere presence. He finds himself assuring, “It is a nice coincidence.”

The smile returns to Jens’s face, and he gives a tiny nod. “So...how have you been?”

Lucas shrugs. He knows that isn’t what Jens really wants to ask. “I’m sorry. That I didn’t reach out to you. It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s just…”

“You just broke up with your long-term boyfriend and I was mostly supposed to be a rebound fuck?” 

Lucas winces. It sounds awful when he puts it like that. “I didn’t mean to.”

Jens shrugs, now, and gives an appeasing shake of his head. “I get it. You’re not the first. I didn’t expect to like, I don’t know. I just thought, _maybe_ , it’d be nice if you wanted to see me again sometime.”

It is that simple, isn’t it? Lucas swallows. “I did. Want to see you again.” He’d even considered going back to the bar. While staring at Jens’s number, and wondering if it was a matter of courage, he’d thought about going back. He’d wondered if that would have made it simpler. If the same magic as that first night could have been rekindled. 

Jens perks up, raising a hopeful brow, and Lucas’s heart squeezes. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Lucas breathes. Jens starts to smile. “It’s just—it feels complicated.” 

Too complicated. Too much, too soon. Lucas doesn’t want to jump immediately into something to have it end just as quickly. Especially not something that he thinks could be pretty amazing. 

“Because you’re not over your ex,” Jens nods, understanding, but Lucas shakes his head.

“Because I feel like I shouldn’t be able to like you as much as I do.”

Jens’s lips part. Lucas wants to kiss them. He thinks that’s probably telling enough. It shouldn’t be, because he doesn’t even know Jens, and he shouldn’t be chasing feelings based on pure attraction, but it feels like more than that. There’s an ease and an understanding—a familiarity—already in place between them. Lucas had felt it that night, and the feeling is back now, a small tug deep in his gut linking him to Jens and asking him to try holding on. Just to see. 

“Do you study here?” Jens tilts his head at him. 

Lucas blinks. He’s not sure what to do with this abrupt change of subject other than answer. “Yeah. In the art department.”

Jens’s lips quirk. “Are you also completely swamped with assignments right now?”

“I am drowning in the swamp,” Lucas sighs, still wondering where this is going. 

“Do you wanna study together, maybe? I’d ask you for coffee, but I’m not sure if you maybe get enough of that already. Maybe...over a lunch? To actually get to know each other a little?” Still sensing Lucas’s hesitation, Jens quickly adds, “Just as friends? Or, in an attempt to become friends?”

Lucas hears the unadded _for now_ and smiles slightly to himself. It’s hard to resist an offer like that, especially with Jens’s hopeful gaze on him. It’s an unexpected offer, and a very kind one, Lucas realises. There’s not really any _reason_ to turn it down. 

He really, really doesn’t want to turn it down. 

“Okay,” he says, and it’s already worth it just to see that beaming smile again. “But, I will get you a coffee first. On the house. You want my most famous latte?”

Jens shrugs, grins. “Maybe something stronger?”

Lucas grins back and moves to the coffee machine. 

_Friends,_ he thinks. _Friends is probably a good place to start._


End file.
